Nursing nipple



March 1956 E. v. PERREAULTU 2,737,180

NURSING NIPPLE Filed July 26, 1954 IN VEN TOR.

Ml/M

BY W

United States Patent NURSING NIPPLE Emile V. Perreault, East Providence, R. I., assignor to Davol Rubber Company, a corporation of Rhode Island Application July 26, 1954, Serial No. 445,877

10 Claims. (Cl. 128-252) The present invention relates to nurser combinations for feeding infants, and has particular reference to a novel construction for a feeding nipple.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a feeding nipple for medium and large mouth nurser bottles, which has a continuously open air vent passage of special form for permitting entry of air into the nurser combination while preventing leakage of fluid therefrom.

Another object of the invention is to provide a capillary flow duct of greatly extended size for feeding nipples having lateral mounting flanges adapted to seat on the rims of medium and large mouth nurser bottles.

A further object of the invention is to provide a capillary spiral flow duct passage on the lower surface of the feeding nipple mounting flange, whereby a tortuous capillary air vent passage is provided between the nipple flange and the upper surface of the nurser bottle rim when the nipple is mounted on the nurser bottle.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, the invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and more specifically defined in the claims appended thereto.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a view of a medium mouth nurser combination, comprising a feeding nipple embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section through the upper portion of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the feeding nipple of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is an elevation, partly in section of a wide mouth feeding nipple embodying the invention.

It has been found desirable to provide an air vent in a nurser combination having a nipple of the base flange type, to permit inflow of air when collapsing suction results from the infants feeding. Since the nipple base flange is mounted on the narrow upper surface of the bottle rim and is pressed down by a retainer cap so as to provide a firm seal, it has heretofore been proposed to provide an air vent passage across the bottle rim or through the nipple flange; but such passages are of short length and have been diflicult to control so as to permit the desired inflow of air while preventing outflow of liquid. I heave therefore devisd a tortuous flow passage of greatly extended length by forming a spiral rib on the lower surface of the nipple flange with closely adjacent convolutions, whereby a narrow spiral capillary groove is provided between the rib convolutions. The spacing of the convolutions is preferably set to position at least two ribs on the narrow bottle rim in the assembled nurser combination; a capillary air flow trough is thus provided, which may be adjusted as to height and flow area by tightening or loosening the retainer cap to correspond to the rate of infant feed and the density of the feed formula. I have found that the provision of a regulatable flow trough of capillary size as described permits a regulated inflow of air into the nurser combination, but prevents outflow of liquid due to the small size and length of the flow trough.

Referring to the drawings, the nurser combination 10 includes a nurser bottle 11, a retainer cap 12, and a feeding nipple 13. The bottle 11 has a neck 14 with exterior threads 15 and an annular rim 16, and is made of suitable material such as glass or plastic, the illustrated bottle being of the medium neck type. The retainer cap 12 is of standard type, with an upper annular base 17 having a central opening 18 of a width to freely extend around the nipple body, the base 17 having an upper annular flange 19 and a lower annular recess 20 around the opening 18, and having a depending cylindrical skirt 21 which is internally threaded as indicated at 22 to engage the outer bottle neck threads 15.

The nipple 13, see Fig. 2, has a hollow generally cylindrical body portion 23, a reduced neck 24 and a slightly enlarged tip 25 provided with one or more flow passages 26, the inner surface at the neck being cylindrical and depending downwardly and the outer surface between the neck and the body portion tapering to provide a thickened annular head 27 of generally triangular cross-section with a depending inner flange 28. The lower inner surface of the body portion has an inwardly extending annular head 29 which forms a recess 30 with the lower surface of the head 27 and the flange 2S, and the lower outer surface of the body portion has an annular outwardly extending flange 31 which is inwardly upwardly inclined to provide a conical inlet 32.

The triangular annular head 27 imparts a tensioning arrangement which increases the pressure as the infants lips press inwardly, thus providing a gum massaging effect. The recess 30 and the conical inlet 32 adapt the feeding nipple for use with a narrow neck nurser bottle, as the narrow neck bottle rim is readily seated in the recess 30 with the inner flange 28 sealing the inner rim edge.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the upper surface 33 of the annular flange 31 is preferably provided with a fine spiral bead 34 adjacent its periphery which is adapted to be engaged by the lower surface 35 of the retainer cap base, and the lower surface 36 of the annular flange 31 has a relatively coarse spiral bead 37 of substantially triangular cross section which is adapted to be engaged by the upper surface 38 of the bottle neck rim 16. Air is normally admitted between the cap threads 22 and the bottle neck threads 15; the spacing of the cap base from the nipple body and the provision of the spiral upper head 34 ensure a free flow of air around the nipple flange 31, as shown in Fig. 2, and through the capillary trough 39 formed by the spaced convolutions of the spiral head 37 and the upper surface of the bottle neck rim.

The feeding nipple is preferably molded of resilient material or synthetic rubber such as silicon rubber, but may be made of plastic materials of the same resilient properties, such as for example, polyvinyl choloride.

The resiliency of the feeding nipple material permits control of the air inflow, as threading the cap down flattens the trough 39 to control the trough area. The very long capillary trough length ensures against return flow of fluid, as there is no flow pressure for the fluid, whereas feeding suction quickly draws air in.

The above described control for vent air may be applied to larger size nipples such as shown at 40 in Fig. 5, for use with wide mouth nurser bottles. In this type of nipple the body portion 41 is dome-like, with uniform thickness, the upstanding neck 42 being of less thickness and the tip 43 of increased thickness. An outwardly extending lower flange 44 is provided with a spiral rib 45 having narrowly spaced convolutions.

Although I have disclosed specific constructional em- Patented Mar. 6, 1956 bodiments of my invention, it is obvious that changes in the size and arrangement of the parts to meet different feeding nipple requirements may be made, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention as defined in the claims appended hereto.

I claim:

1. A feeding nipple of flexible material, having a hollow body portion, a neck, and a feeding tip, said body portion having an annular outwardly projecting flange at the lower portion thereof, and a spiral rib on the lower surface of said flange having closely adjacent convolutions.

2. In the combination of claim 1, said spiral rib having a substantially triangular cross section.

3. In the combination of claim 2, the upper surface of said flange having a spiral rib with closely adiacent convolutions.

4. In the combination of claim 3, said lower surface spiral rib being coarser than the upper surface spiral rib.

5. A feeding nipple of flexible material, having a hollow body portion, a neck, said body portion and neck having an intermediate annular portion of generally triangular cross section, and a feeding tip, said body portion having an annular outwardly projecting flange at the lower portion thereof, and a spiral rib on the lower surface of said flange having closely adjacent convolutions.

6. In the combination of claim 5, said spiral rib having a substantially triangular cross section.

7. In the combination of claim 5, the upper surface of said flange having a spiral rib with closely adjacent convolutions.

8. In the combination of claim 5, said lower surface spiral rib being coarser than the upper surface spiral rib.

9. In the combination of claim 5, said body portion having an annular internal recess adapted to receive the bottle rim of a small mouth nursing bottle.

10. A feeding nipple of flexible material, having a hollow body portion, a neck, and a feeding tip, said body portion having an annular outwardly projecting flange at the lower portion thereof, the lower surface of said flange having a capillary air vent flow passage of tortuous character extending from the outer edge to the inner edge of the flange.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,584,359 Miles Feb. 5, 1952 

